NO RACIAL PROFILING, PLEASE

[Rob H.]

NO RACIAL PROFILING, PLEASE
April 30, 2012 at 11:37 am
PZ Myers

I’m more than a little appalled. Sam Harris defends racial profiling in airport security screening. I reject this categorically.

(snip)

Terrorists are people who have an ideological commitment so fierce that they encourage violence in its defense, even to the point of self-destruction. It is a behavioral property, not a racial one; to argue that one can identify it by so superficial a characteristic as appearance is unjust and ineffective. If we’re going to play the odds game in the United States, for instance, the people we ought to be stopping are white males. These are our terrorists, for instance.



(snip)

Harris is right to complain about the superficial show of frisking down a subset of people passing through the security chokepoint — it’s a stupid way to prevent terrorism. It would be far more effective to catch them before they show up at the airport, on the basis of associations and activities, rather than their skin color or the shape of their nose; it would also be better to have more robust recognition of identity at the airport, in order to connect information about threatening behavior to the individual.

But never mind me. Ask a security expert, Bruce Schneier, about profiling. He advocates behavioral profiling (are they acting hinky? Is there something unusual about their activities?) but rejects the stupidity of profiling by ancestry.

(snip)

Thorough reform of the security process is needed to make us genuinely safer. Scapegoating ethnic groups is not, however, the answer.

And some more follow-up responses to Harris' responses:

More discussion of profiling, pro and con
May 5th, 2012

My objections to profiling weren’t actually addressed...but OK
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/07/my-objections-to-profiling-werent-actually-addressedbut-ok
May 7th, 2012

The true conflict
May 8th, 2012

(Apologies for the May 7th link; I couldn't get it to work like the others, for some reason.)

[Crow73]

1. It doesn't work.

That is why the TSA based it on the Israel system.

[Rob H.]

2. You're right

I actually got my hands checked (for powder residue?) going through security once, and I can understand why they did it. I got in line at the security checkpoint, realized my ticket was actually in the bottom of my carry-on before anyone got in line behind me, got out of line, had to dig through my bag to find the ticket, got my driver's license out of my wallet and got back into line. (I'm a tall, strawberry blonde-haired white guy with a red beard, ftr, but they did exactly what they should've done. I'm sure they thought I was acting weird, but I was just having a senior moment.)

Edited for clarity.

[bananas]

3. But Sam Harris is a Hero! He's protecting us from evil-doers!

Sam Harris is a RATIONAL atheist!
His racist beliefs are based on REASON!
And did I mention that he's an ATHEIST HERO?

http://www.zazzle.com/atheist_heroes_sam_harris_tshirt-23564419083888933v

Atheist Heroes - Sam Harris T Shirts

[laconicsax]

6. You mean that *gasp* some atheists are racist morons?

I do declare! I'm feeling faint...where are my smelling salts!

[trotsky]

7. Doing your best to improve the tone here, eh? n/t

[eqfan592]

8. ...............

[rug]

4. I give PZ his due. He called Harris on this immediately.

[Rob H.]

5. Yep. And Harris probably regrets giving Schneier a chance to respond, too

Schneier on Harris
May 8, 2012 at 8:49 pm PZ Myers

I have to commend Sam Harris for featuring a guest post by security expert Bruce Schneier on profiling, especially since he backs up everything I’ve said so far. 1) Profiling people who “look Muslim” will have a high false positive rate, 2) “looking Muslim” is a hopelessly indefinable criterion, 3) terrorists will use profiling to avoid detection, and 4) it’s a strategy to alienate those who could be on our side.

I do recommend his blog, Schneier on Security, for your regular reading (also because he has Friday Squid Blogging — he’s a man of excellent taste).

I’m also going to recommend this paper that Brownian mentioned in the comments here: Strong profiling is not mathematically optimal for discovering rare malfeasors. Profiling doesn’t add up; the numbers don’t work.

Are we done now?

Harris should remember the first rule of holes and really stop digging now, imo.

[Joseph8th]

9. Atheist here. Question: Who is Sam Harris? Never heard of him...

... see, because we atheists work from first principles, rather than sheepishly follow movement leaders. I'm as angry an atheist as you'll ever meet. I've read all the major religious texts, loads of minor ones, lots of commentary and historical analysis, comparative religion from Allegro to Augustine -- both Calvin AND Hobbes. I even sort of believed for a while, until I realized the mystery had burnt away, leaving nothing but the venal and self-serving visions of mushroom munching nit-pickers of various sorts. And it made me mad... this grotesque history of religion. Then it started making me mad that people are still asserting outrageously obvious falsehoods as religious fact, as if that should matter to anyone else.

It's intolerable. Religion in public is intolerable. Any time religion is brought up in a public forum, so is history, and that history is the blackest stain on humanity thus far. To then be expected to treat believers as intellectual and moral equals, while retaining knowledge of this historic and continuing abuse?

I don't think so. Not any more. The line is drawn. Here. No further.

That's how that works. Not Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris -- no, not fucking Stalin, so piss off.

It's Jesus. Mohammed. Buddha. That's who did it. I read your own texts and found them absurd. Believe them if you want, but either keep it to yourself or expect some blowback. The kid gloves are off.

[Joseph8th]

10. White privilege is rooted in Christian privilege.

Get rid of Christian privilege, and most of what ails the U.S. will evaporate.

That's a hopeful change I can live with.